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2020 Honda Civic Type R Revealed With Styling and Hardware Changes

Throughout 2019, we've kept coming across a Honda Civic Type R prototype at the famous Nurburgring track. The inevitable happened, and a revised version has come out, at the 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon no less.
2020 Honda Civic Type R Revealed With Styling and Hardware Changes 3 photos
Photo: Honda
2020 Honda Civic Type R Revealed With Styling and Hardware Changes2020 Honda Civic Type R Revealed With Styling and Hardware Changes
The changes are by no means dramatic ones, much like they were for the rest of the Civic family last year. Honda doesn't like to do big facelifts like Ford or Volkswagen and instead opted to play around with the trim bits.

If you're not a fan of the race car look, the Civic Type R still won't be for you. But somehow, designers have addressed criticism with the fake grilles. At the front, the ones at the front look a little less fake, while the main grille between the headlights is supposedly better for engine breathing, though they haven't actually added any power.

At least as far as the American market is concerned, the 2-liter four-cylinder still delivers 306-horsepower and 295 pound-feet (400 Nm) of torque, dispatched to the front wheels through a six-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential. So despite having access to a performance twin-clutch, the Type R is a non-auto hot hatch.

A new shade of paint called Boost Blue is pretty much the only other exterior update. The rest of the development time and money went into what's under the polarizing skin. For example, the Type R supposedly has better steering feel, tweaked dampers for a smoother ride and enhanced grip with stiffer rear bushings.

Honda has installed newly developed two-piece brake rotors and updated brake pads designed to reduce fade and boost the stopping power at high speeds. Hopefully, that's a reliable and road-worthy solution too. While no photos of the interior were released, the company did say its revised hatch will have an Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel and a different shifter featuring a redesigned knob and shorter shift throws. It's also supposed to be safer thanks to Honda Sensing, though it probably also bumps up the price quite a bit.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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